Day: September 14, 2005

I wanted to create a text file of a directory listing but didn’t know how. A simple search on the net and a little browsing brought me these simple instructions that will let me create a text file on any directory with a simple right click.

I just finished using it to create a text list of my iTunes subfolders and files. It works perfectly!

1. Open Notepad, and then copy and paste the following three lines of text into it:
   @echo off
   dir %1 /-p /S /D /o:gn > C:\Temp.txt
   exit
2. Save the file as Dir2Txt.bat in the root of the C:\Windows directory, and then close Notepad.
3. Start Windows Explorer, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
4. Click the File Types tab, and then scroll down the list of registered file types until you find the Folder entry in the ‘File Types’ column. (You may find it easier to find if you sort the entries alphabetically by clicking on the grey bar at the top of the ‘File Types’ column).
5. Click on the Folder entry to highlight it.
6. Click on the Advanced button.
7. Click on the New button.
8. In the Action box, type Directory To Text File.
9. In the ‘Application used to perform action’ box, click browse and locate the Dir2Txt.bat you saved in step 2. Then click OK.
10. In the Edit Filetype box, click on the Explore action and then on the Set Default button. Explore will turn to bold. (Personally I set OPEN to default instead of Explore).
11. Click on OK then on OK again.
12. Open Windows Explorer, right-click the folder that you would like to create a text file of, and you should see a new entry – Directory To Text File. Click on it and a text file called C:\Temp.txt will be created. This file can be opened with Notepad and will contain a detailed listing of the directory’s contents – including sub-directories. This can be printed out if required after formatting.

Note: The required filename (C:\Temp.txt) can be changed in the bat file if required and the existing text file is overwritten each time, so move or rename it if you want to keep it.

Michael Newdow has won round one in his bid to remove ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance. This time he represents families who have legal standing, which was the sticking point in his previous attempt, which was dismissed by the US Supremes.

From the page:

“Imagine every morning if the teachers had the children stand up, place their hands over their hearts, and say, ‘We are one nation that denies God exists,'” Newdow said. “I think that everybody would not be sitting here saying, ‘Oh, what harm is that.’ They’d be furious. And that’s exactly what goes on against atheists. And it shouldn’t.”

From the page: “Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.”

I really enjoyed looking at Banksy’s collection of graffiti artwork. I found his work on the wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories to be particularly astute.

I started my one and only class last night. It’s called “Theory and Aesthetics of Video Games”.

Over the last three decades, video games have become an increasingly important medium in terms of popularity, economic significance, and cultural impact. This course aims to provide a structural and analytical framework for the study of this emerging medium. Because video games are relatively new, we will explore ways to study, analyze and theorize about video games within a Fine Arts context. As with popular culture generally, a major question is whether video games warrant the sustained attention and critical investigation that we devote to works of literature, visual art, cinema, or music. Therefore, we will explore video games for their uniqueness as a medium but also in terms of similarities with other aesthetic artifacts. Topics to be explored will include: history and origins, aesthetics and interpretation, genres, interactivity and narrative, character development, game play, mise-en-scene, and social issues such as gender and violence. Note: for various reasons, we will be focusing almost exclusively on games from the three major consoles now on the market.

It looks to be a fairly entertaining class and seeing the make-up of the class it will be interesting to see what kind of discussions we will be having. The class is mostly male (28 guys – 2 girls) and for the most part they seem like the type of guys that spend a lot time playing video games. Not that I don’t spend a lot of time playing games myself, especially with all the free time I have now, but more than a few of them seem to be especially hard-core video game zealots.